What you need to know: GoPro’s $634 million in quarterly revenue improved 75% year-over-year and more than doubled the company’s third-quarter sales of $280 million. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company easily outpaced the expectations of analysts, who predicted revenue of $580 million, according to Thomson Reuters. GoPro closed out 2014 with a 41% increase in annual revenue, to $1.4 billion.

GoPro’s quarterly profits nearly tripled to $122.3 million from $43.7 million during the same period in 2013. The company’s annual profits more than doubled, growing to $128.1 million from $60.6 million a year earlier.

The company also announced that COO Nina Richardson is leaving GoPro at the end of February. The company’s stock dropped more than 15% in after-hours trading following a day in which GoPro shares already improved by nearly 5%.

GoPro’s shares GPRO were down nearly 30% over the past three months. The company’s shares were in high demand for months after a successful IPO last June, but began to reverse course in the fall. (The company’s shares are still selling for more than double their $24 IPO price.)

The big number: Last month, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman boasted about the company’s uptick in sales during the holiday season, telling CNBC that “it was a GoPro Christmas” for the company as well as for retailers and customers. The launch of a new version of GoPro’s Hero line of wearable sports cameras in September helped make it a strong holiday season.

GoPro shipped 2.4 million cameras in the fourth quarter, which represents an improvement of 68% over the same period in 2013. In fact, the company said shipped more units in this most recent fourth quarter than it did in all of 2012. The company’s 5.2 million shipments for the whole of 2014 marked a 35% jump over the previous year’s shipments.

What you might have missed: GoPro has been touting its strategy to expand beyond just camera sales to a full-fledged media company, and it noted in the earnings release the importance of adding live-broadcast capability to its cameras. Last month, the company announced a long-term partnership with the National Hockey League that will see the league’s players and referees using GoPro cameras to film live action during games.

Also on Thursday, GoPro announced a deal with streaming media company Roku to add a GoPro channel to Roku’s portfolio of streaming content. GoPro previously announced a similar partnership with Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console.

The NHL goes big on GoPro

When Apple was awarded a new patent last week for a wearable camera, it was seen as very bad news for GoPro. The camera, presumably, will directly compete with GoPro’s product. And indeed, the news caused shares of GoPro, which went public in June, to fall below $50, to their lowest price in four months.

Interviewed by Fortune editor Alan Murray this month at CES in Las Vegas, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman (no. 12 on our 2014 40 Under 40 list) said that his company would withstand potential competition from Apple thanks to its brand: “Can you imagine people sharing their Apple videos? Like, ‘My epic Apple ski weekend.’ Or, when was the last time you saw someone share another branded Company X, Y, Z video? You’re only seeing people share GoPro videos. Because that’s what the brand GoPro is known for.”

An additional competitive advantage is now underway in earnest: infiltrating live televised sports. (Apple does not have a sponsorship deal with any of the four major sports.) GoPro GPRO is already known for being the item that outdoor athletes—think snowboarders, skateboarders, and bikers—strap to their heads in order to capture exciting footage and share it on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. GoPro’s next move is to deliver the same kind of footage to fans of live sports. And it will start with hockey.

Today, GoPro announced a long-term partnership with the National Hockey League that will result in the league using GoPro cameras—potentially on referee helmets and in the rink—and integrating them into live broadcasts of NHL games. The NHL and GoPro already worked together back in September on a shoot at which some referees wore GoPro cameras, but it was only for promotional footage, not regular season games.

The company is announcing the deal in time for the upcoming NHL All-Star Weekend, where cameras will be on some refs and on the inside of the rink for the Skills Competition. During the season, the NHL and NHLPA can now outfit refs with the cameras, and game broadcasts will have the option to cut over to them for new points of view. Earlier this month, GoPro announced a new partnership with Vislink to deliver wireless HD footage for live broadcasts (GoPro is calling this its Professional Broadcast Solution) and the Skills Competition will be the debut of this technology.

For now, this NHL agreement does not yet involve players wearing GoPros during games, though some will wear them this weekend during the Skills Competition as a test run. GoPro is holding off on that element, out of respect for player safety and comfort. “We’d sure love that, but it’s a sensitive topic,” says marketing VP Paul Crandell. “The most important thing is that we don’t invade their normal routine. We don’t want it to prohibit any performance.”

Considering that GoPro is so closely associated with sports, it may come as a surprise that this is the company’s first official partnership with any professional sports league, outside of the X Games. Its strategy of adding more mainstream sports, after making its name in extreme sports, is now clear. “This gets us into the mass-reaching sports and shows GoPro is effective in stick-and-ball sports, too,” says Crandell, “beyond just action-adventure sports.” In other words, expect to see GoPro cameras in other leagues soon—maybe on NFL endzone goalposts, as a kick sails through the uprights, or behind NBA backboards, to show fans an up-close view of a great dunk.

As for whether the cameras can be worn by players even in sports without helmets? Some day, the company hopes. “The other solutions for live cameras are bulky, big, there’d be no way to attach it to any kind of athlete,” says Crandell. “We’ve really gotten the form factor down to something that is… eventually wearable.”

GoPro is describing this NHL partnership as a “proving ground” for what the camera can do not just in replay footage, but for live shots. For the NHL, it’s an opportunity to be connected to a buzzy tech company, and to show some flash. The GoPro cameras, according to NHL SVP of programming Bob Chesterman, will, “showcase the beauty and intensity of hockey in new and deeper ways.” Of course, if hockey fans don’t find the new GoPro footage particularly compelling, watch for them to fade from the rink.

Constellation will provide carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates that match the 550,000 metric tons of carbon that the league uses in a season. Some of the offsets will come from sources such as wind farms, landfill gas projects and solar panel installation at its venues. The plan is the first of its kind in pro sports, according to the league.

On a conference call from the NHL headquarters in New York City, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that the partnership “advances our commitment to promoting responsible energy use by the NHL, including our teams, our venues and our fans.”

The NHL declined to discuss the cost of partnering with Constellation and stated on the call that the league did not put out an RFP to find other businesses to work with on the initiative. “We decided that we wanted to be with Constellation and that they wanted to be with us,” said Bettman. “In terms of cost, we’re not going to go into the details.”

In a statement Bettman added: “Our sport was born on frozen ponds and relies on winter weather. Everyone who loves our game will benefit by taking an active role in preserving the environment and the roots of the game.”

Joe Nigro, CEO of Constellation, said in a statement that by promoting responsible energy use, the NHL is “setting an example for the sports industry, fans and communities.”

Allen Hershkowitz, the president of the Green Sports Alliance, an organization that works with sports leagues in the U.S. to become more environmentally aware, praised the move on the call.

“Frankly, nothing like this has ever happened in pro sports,” he said, but added that the NHL’s footprint of 550,000 tons of carbon is small. It represents just 1/30th of the emissions produced by a single coal plant, for example.

“So why is this so important?” Hershkowitz continued. “The NHL is using its market and cultural influence to educate millions of people around the world.”

NFL brand confidence at its lowest point in over two years

With a string of domestic abuse cases bombarding the NFL recently, it’s no surprise that confidence in the pro sports league is flagging.

But despite NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s press conference on Friday, the league is performing at its worst in over two years in the eyes of the public, according to YouGov BrandIndex, a company that tracks brand awareness.

On a scale from 100 to -100, the NFL’s “Buzz Score” currently measures at -42, according to a report released Wednesday. That’s as of Sept. 22 when 10,000 responses were tabulated.

The company asked the following question: “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

On Sept. 8, the NFL “was at its highest consumer perception point of the year” with a score of 36. On that day, however, TMZ released the video of Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiancée in an elevator.

YouGov BrandIndex has been tracking perception of the NFL for the last two-and-a-half years.

New York Islanders owner sells minority stake, will transfer ownership in two years

The New York Islanders said Tuesday that owner Charles Wang has agreed to sell “a substantial minority interest” in the professional hockey team to former Washington Capitals co-owner Jon Ledecky and London-based investor Scott Malkin for an undisclosed sum.

As part of the agreement, Wang will cede control of the team in two years, at which point the group led by Ledecky and Malkin will become majority owners. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed, nor was the size of the minority stake in the Islanders that Wang will retain once the new group takes over.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to become partners in the New York Islanders with Charles and to pursue our shared dream of winning a fifth Stanley Cup for the greatest fans in the N.H.L.,” Ledecky said in a statement. Ledecky sold his minority stake in the Capitals in 2001 and later made a failed bid to buy the Washington Nationals.

The deal, which is still subject to approval by the National Hockey League, comes a week after Wang was sued for $10 million by Andrew Barroway, a hedge fund manager who had reportedly previously been in talks to buy the Islanders. Barroway’s suit claims that Wang backed out of a handshake deal to sell him the team for $420 million earlier this year only to raise his asking price to $548 million months later.

Wang and fellow former Computer Associates executive Sanjay Kumar paid about $187.5 million for the Islanders in 2000. (Kumar was later indicted on securities fraud related to his activities at Computer Associates and sold his stake in the team to Wang.) This upcoming season marks the Islanders’ last in Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, on Long Island, with the team planning a move to Brooklyn’s Barclay Arena next year.

Professional hockey is going green one ice rink at a time

Unlike glaciers, the ice played on by the National Hockey League players won’t be melting any time soon. That’s thanks to some new environmentally focused initiatives that the NHL touts as setting a precedent for pro sports leagues. Even so, climate change may be hurting rinks on ponds around the world.

In a monumental move for the sports industry, the NHL recently released its first sustainability report. Notably, the report is apparently the first document of its kind published by a North American major sports league.

The report comes nearly two months after the White House called for cuts in emissions by 2030 and after President Barack Obama announced in May that climate change is happening now.

The report focuses on the ways in which the NHL’s franchises are transforming stadiums and other spaces to become more energy-efficient, although there’s little in the way of actual number crunching about the costs versus rewards.

But the report does cite increased efficiency as providing financial incentive to the league. “The shift away from old, inefficient lighting has produced significant returns on investment and lessened environmental impact,” the report cites as an example. Stadiums could also add more efficient boilers and ceiling-mounted downdraft fans to save money, according to the report.

Meanwhile, if you thought the NHL ice rinks were safe from change, think again. The 12,000 to 15,000 gallons of water to create an NHL regulation ice sheet also received an environmental boost through a reverse osmosis process that means less-dissolved gasses within the ice, according to the report.

The NHL details the league’s carbon footprint of approximately 530,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. The breakdown includes 182 game days, 1,230 regular-season games, over 60 playoff contests and about 2 million miles of travel for its teams each season.

In comparison, according to the report, the largest coal plant in the U.S. totals 23 million metric tons, which is sure to make the NHL’s figures look like nothing.

Allen Hershkowitz, who heads the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Green Sports program, called the report a “mainstream wake-up call” in a statement. And, yes, even sports and recreation comes with a price to the environment, he added.

In terms of sports branding, the increased transparency about sustainability by the NHL is a good start, according to marketing expert Bob Dorfman of California advertising firm Baker Street Advertising. “It’s a significant plus for the NHL brand, and puts them ahead of the other pro sports leagues with regard to environmental issues,” he said. “The development of hockey and it’s players, so dependent on water, ice, weather and temperature, is clearly more affected by the environment than are other sports, so a report of this kind makes sense, is timely and relevant.”

Dorfman added, too, that the ecological footprint of pro sports leagues are typically “massive” and that “any league-wide effort” is “extremely important” these days. Plus, “it does allow for cost cutting under the aegis of ‘going green,'” he said.

A new video app for sports fans on the go

Imagine this: You’re out on the town while your favorite sports team is playing, and it’s impossible to watch the game. There’s no cable for miles and ESPN doesn’t mesh with your mobile phone carrier. There’s Twitter, but there aren’t any video streams, especially ones tailored to your liking. You’re simply out of luck.

Enter 120 Sports, a streaming network for mobile devices that will be introduced Wednesday at 6pm. It will offer breaking news and sports video highlights in two-minute bites.

Miss a goal in World Cup soccer? No problem. Want to get the latest on LeBron? Easy enough. You can search for what you want through the app, either by a specific sport or athlete. At the bottom of the screen are related stats, tweets, and stories (including advertising, which is peppered throughout).

The network is backed by Time Inc. TIME, which owns Fortune, with partners including the NHL, NBA, MLB.com, NASCAR and a number of college conferences through Campus Insiders. Silver Chalice, a media company that is one of the investors, will produce the site with a team of over 100 people while MLBAM, the digital arm of the MLB, will handle some of the technical infrastructure and software development.

“Building a venture of this magnitude could only succeed with the right group of sports and news organizations, and in the 120 Sports launch partners we have a product that will deliver on its promise to fans,” Bob Bowman, the president and CEO of MLBAM, said in a statement.

In addition to the app, users can get access to 120 Sports at its website.

“120 Sports is an innovative, addictive product that will give sports fans an amazing amount of always-on sports content and great technology so they can engage with news and highlights wherever they are,” said Todd Larsen, a Time Inc. executive vice president.

Time Inc. recently spun out from Time Warner and is trying to push beyond its core print magazine business into digital publishing. Like many traditional media companies, it’s trying to offset declining print ad revenue with new sources of revenue like online advertising.

But 120 Sports comes with challenges. Most of all, it must compete with a slew of other sports video sites, many of which offer live streaming rather than mostly highlights, said Ian Schafer, the CEO of Deep Focus, a digital marketing company.

“I think they have a serious uphill climb,” he said. “I’m bullish on the format,” but he added that “they will have to overcome significant odds to crack the monopoly,” which Schafer said included the leagues themselves. The major sport leagues may be partners in the venture, but it may be better business-wise for them to send traffic to their own sites rather than 120 Sports, he said.

Meanwhile, the app lacks access to one critical component for its launch date — video from NFL games. The football league did not give any video rights, although executives says the conversation to get them is ongoing.

The key demographic for 120 Sports will be younger people who predominantly use mobile apps for news and watching video, Schafer said. But Sports Illustrated may not offer much of a lift in that area because the median age of the magazine’s readers is 42. That being said, over a third of the magazine’s nearly 20 million total audience fall in the 18-34 age range.

Schafer continued that keys to success for 120 sports will be delivering news and video that’s different from its rivals and that keep visitors returning. The same goes for the advertisers, who want to reach an audience that they can’t get elsewhere.